13 comments:

I suffered a heart attack in 2002. I was taken to the local hospital by ambulance, attended to in emergency and later in critical care. A day later I was flown by air ambulance to Sydney where I had heart surgery at Royal North Shore hospital. The next day I was released and caught a train home. And none of it cost me a penny.

This is good Justin. I may use it if you don't mind.I've been waiting for someone to comment on last weeks US elections. You were the first!I just don't get what a lot of Americans want. Is it greed? Is it world domination? Have they been THAT brain-washed that they can't see through all the BS being thrown at them by the ones that really control everything......the multinationals and big business. The politicians, for the most part, are doing what they are told.So frustrating for us all and it's happening in every country but so much more noticeable in the US. Thanks for opening up this rant.Jim

I'm hard pressed to find anything significant in this cheezy phillippic, so I suggest you just run off 50 copies of it and pass it out to the good socialist academics in Boston so they can remain intellectually encapsulated in their self-validating comfort zone. And if you waive enough Bush/Chaney bloody shirts, maybe people will forget that government spending is still flushing this country down the crapper, only at a dramatically accellerated rate. In 1982 Yale University Press published a brilliant economic treatise by Mancur Olson called "The Rise and Decline of Nations". He argued that democracies fail because they ultimately are dominated by special interest groups whose lobbying power is applied to gain a larger cut of the tax revenue pie for their constituents. As he put it, "...the great majority of special interest organizations redistribute income rather than create it, and in ways that reduce social efficiency and output." Obama told Joe the Plumber, "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." Well, the end result of that nonsensical thinking is that America becomes Greece or France, where high school kids join the unions and the marxists in rioting because they can't retire at 55 or 60. I decided long ago that I would never count on the government providing for me in my old age, but it sure boils my blood to see so many perfectly employable people in my community drawing Social Security Disability, and the lawyers who get paid in taxpayer money for representing them. Those among the recipients who are truly disabled got that way because they have and will continue to trash their bodies through substance abuse, sloth and self-indulgent diets. The liberal academy sneers at all the "hicks" in the Tea Party movement, but if you look beyond the christian rightists in their ranks and their lack of political sophistication they have one core message: Stop the spending. I say right on to that. The federal government has no business bailing out California and New York because their legislators are too much in the pocket of the public employee unions to balance their budgets. We ought to eliminate all the failed social engineering programs of the Great Society, the failed public housing programs, the education planning and subsidies that have done nothing to reform the public schools, the fraud in medicare/medicaid and disability programs, retirement before age 68 and (sacred cow of sacred cows) the billions of dollars we give to right wing Israeli governments hell-bent on throwing the un-"chosen" arabs off their land on the West Bank. (This is root of our problem and warfare in the Middle East.) Accomplishing things like this will take a lot of guts. We will never get such reforms under Obama, who will only make matters worse. And the newly-elected Republicans better heed what Senator-elect Rubio said last week: They've been given a second chance, and if they fail to listen to the productive taxpayers of this country their asses will be put in the street along with the Democrats in the next election cycle.

Accidently sent it twice. You can forget about the passing it out bit. I got carried away because that list made me mad. I have never been more worried about the future of this country than now, and believe nothing but radical surgery will save it from itself.

Yes, J, I see that. . .and the list made me mad too. . .guess we are on either side of the surgical table you mention. .radical surgery. I agree with you there. . .as I do with the statement by Marco Rubio you quoted, as your parting salvo!

So, my friend, all is not lost. . .hehe. . .we really do agree. . all we have to do is meet in the middle and do the work. It cannot be the heels in the sand of one of the GOP leaders "He wants cooperation? He has to begin my moving in our direction. . ." OK, GOP HAS to begin to move in his direction.

If all the GOP plans to do in the next two years is see to it Obama fails and doesn't get a second term. . . they will win and the country will flounder because of it. Talk about selfish, stupid, narrow minded self-styled big shots. . Their asses are being smoked over the hickory fires and they do not even know it!. sheeeessshhh. . .makes my stomach sour.BTW, keep an eye on Cuban-American Marco Rubio. . .I predict a rising star there. . . except I fear the GOP will pounce him too. . .he is too honest for them!. . . and he is a much "darker shade of pale"

It's interesting to note that Oz, which has a more or less socialist agenda, has a booming economy, low inflation and low unemployment (below 5%).

The Aussie dollar is now above parity with the USD, and the government is bitching about the loss of tax revenue as a result. We were better off when our dollar was worth 75 US cents. Aussie exporters are also bitching about loss of revenue.

On the other hand, our 4 leading banks have just posted a record $21billion profit between them.

So when I read J's comments, I can't help but be puzzled by the success of Oz when it's doing pretty much what the Obama admin is trying to do in America.

I see absolutely see RED when I think of each and every one of those statements! Politics is an interest to me. No one 'Politician' is perfect, so I VOTE. I consider myself to be Moderate Liberal, because I care about the 'working people', equality, fairness in this Country not so much of the self-loathing greed of Corporate Interest. I surely get MAD, when I think of two statements in particular. One, when the Supreme Court appointed George W. Bush as President his first term. When I mention this to Conservatives, they look at me like I have three heads! Convenient forgetfulness. The controversy started with Florida and the 'hanging chads' recount, Governed by his Brother! Hummm! It would not surprise me to find a delivery truck in the bottom of the everglades with 'hanging chads' in the year 3020 or so! Secondly, it would be going to war in the Middle East. I do give the Bush Administration the benefit of doubt, when it comes to possibly being mislead by poor intelligence.But, after we knew of faulty intelligence, why keep going? The BIGEST MONSTER of them all, OIL! It's clear the Bush/Cheney twosome were always proponents in favor of the Oil Industry. Dependence on this fluid is the biggest most monopolistic conglomeration of corruption in the US. If you don't think so consider this, Armed US Navy Ships and Aircraft Carriers are on permanent assignment in the Gulf. Our tax dollars at work! They're watching and guarding the many oil tankers the deliver to the US and abroad. One of those ‘puppies’ gets taken out on the way to it's destination would kick our BUTT economically. If the flow of tankers were disrupted for any duration of time...it would cripple the US. Consider when 'Ground-Stop' was declared for Air travel in the US after 911. At just about any given moment around the clock, 3 to 5 thousand aircraft are air born over the US. Mail, Goods, food and Services, Passenger travel and a myriad of other things came to a dead halt! The Airline Industry was in shambles instantly, and still has not completely recovered. There are NOT many alternatives, No sufficient rail service, it's slow and very limited. If you don’t have a car in California your screwed. Buses!, antiquated and crowded. It would be chaos as one of the only ways to get around. With no fuel to move ‘Trucking’ in this Country things would be in shortage overnight! …The US infrastructure is on 'life support', watch out when you cross that 75 year old Segamore Bridge, Justin! Transportation alternatives SUCK! There is 'little to none’ when it comes to choices. Why?, OIL! If America could turn manufacturing on it’s head in the late 1930’s, and practically overnight build tanks, ships, and planes to support WWII… Then, Why the blazes does it take so long to get Energy Independent? Why?, OIL! Some are oblivious to the OIL Industry's dominance in this Country. The OIL Industry is TOO Big for it's britches! It practically owns Texas, and every other Conservative vote. It will take a catastrophe to occur for people to realize it. Because of OIL dominance, it will not let Solar, Bio- diesel, Algee-o-line, Natural gas, expansion of Hydro Electric Power, Wind, Tide Turbine Technology, Electric and Hydrogen powered Cars and Trucks, 'Mag Lev' Bullet Trains and Rail Cargo even poke their heads out of the egg! Embryonic good ideas (ultra slow in coming to the General Public) that DIE at the hands of any threat to OIL. I say, we don't have to eliminate OIL all together, just break it’s dominance and dependence. There is enough drilling in the US to support independently from the rest of the world, IF and ONLY IF, we would create competition and jobs with all other (renewable) sources of energy. I think in the Long run, it would also create a better National Security. So, what do I do? Yes, 'I GET MAD', and I take it to the polls and Vote! It's my privilege, right and responsibility.

In Transportation ! There is 'little to none’ when it comes to choices. Why?, OIL! If America could turn manufacturing on it’s head in the late 1930’s, and practically overnight build tanks, ships, and planes to support WWII… Then, Why the blazes does it take so long to get Energy Independent? Why?, OIL! Some are oblivious to the OIL Industry's dominance in this Country. The OIL Industry is TOO Big for it's britches! It practically owns Texas, and every other Conservative vote. It will take a catastrophe to occur for people to realize it. Because of OIL dominance, it will not let Solar, Bio- diesel, Algee-o-line, Natural gas, expansion of Hydro Electric Power, Wind, Tide Turbine Technology, Electric and Hydrogen powered Cars and Trucks, 'Mag Lev' Bullet Trains and Rail Cargo even poke their heads out of the egg! Embryonic good ideas (ultra slow in coming to the General Public) that DIE at the hands of any threat to OIL. I say, we don't have to eliminate OIL all together, just break it’s dominance and dependence. There is enough drilling in the US to support independently from the rest of the world, IF and ONLY IF, we would create competition and jobs with all other (renewable) sources of energy. I think in the Long run, it would also create a better National Security. So, what do I do? Yes, 'I GET MAD', and I take it to the polls and Vote! It's my privilege, right and responsibility. :)

About Me

23 yo,5'10, 155, brn hair, drk brn eyes. Nordic skier,swim,run,bike,soccer, sex,party. Aug 2011 Beginning PhD program at university near Boston,psych major, completed Masters, now to PhD. Hope to work as psycho-therapist,serving esp gay community helping teens and olders deal with being gay in too-often un-nurturing hostile society.
My first blog so we shall see where this goes. See ya around town, bros.. . or the Dunes.lol
If you want to contact me privately you may email me at jstn_oshea@yahoo.com